Women have a powerful role to play in preventing extremism

Women needed to be a part of the solution to conflicts, says an Abu Dhabi report published by Hedayah and the Global Centre on Cooperative Security. Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters

ABU DHABI // Women should have a powerful role in preventing violent extremism in the region, according to an Abu Dhabi anti-extremism centre.

A report, published by Hedayah and the Global Centre on Cooperative Security, on exploring the roles of women in countering terrorism and violent extremism found that women needed to be a part of the solution to conflicts.

› Hedayah report recommendations

“The role of women in promulgating and countering violent extremism is an understudied but critical contemporary security issue,” the report said. “Even in societies where women are limited in their public role, mothers can be critical partners in prevention, from identifying early warning signs of violent radicalisation to mobilising a first line of support, whether that is within the family, other social and kinship circles or government.

“However, it is also worth noting that while mothers may have a unique role in the home and may be closely connected to their children, they are not always empowered to act, and children can go to great lengths to hide their activities.”

Women were also said to hold diverse roles in extremist groups. “It is not a new phenomenon and, historically, women have planned, supported and executed terrorist attacks, from Northern Ireland to Sri Lanka,” the report said.

“Groups like Al Qaeda and Isis have made a concerted effort to appeal to women by transforming traditional notions of their role into one that purports to empower them as mothers of a future generation of fighters.”

Early this year, it was reported that Isis chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi had appointed a female fighter to lead a new battalion in northeastern Syria, which, the report says, “underscores their attention to the roles of women and, if confirmed, represent an expansion of women’s roles in the group”.

Extremist groups were said to have demonstrated greater attention to the roles of women than many counterterrorism practitioners and policymakers. “It is possible that women can play an influential role prompting several men and women to support or join extremist causes,” it read. “Increasing the numbers of women in security efforts can help [prevent this].”

Sara Zeiger, senior research analyst at Hedayah, said there was a need to be more consistent in the approach towards the role of women in both terrorism and counterterrorism. “Women can be active or passive in both roles, and women can play a positive or negative role in both instances,” she said.

“There are historical cases of very active female terrorists. In the same way, there are clear cases of women who could play a major role in preventing terrorism but do not due to lack of information or lack of will to participate.”

Dr Albadr Al Shateri, adjunct professor at the National Defence College, said: “The idea that women are part and parcel of any solution to extremism or violence will sound trite since women assume a majority role in the upbringing and socialisation of individuals.”

He said women were always involved alongside men in political violence, whether revolutionary violence in the case of Algeria’s war of independence or the outright terrorism of Al Qaeda and Isis.

“To believe that violence, including criminal violence, is a male phenomenon is to think that sports is only a male pastime,” Dr Al Shateri said. “Women partake in all walks of life, positive or negative.”

He said women must become part of the solution. “The gendered studies of security and wars is the cause of the spread of violent culture,” he added. “As the UAE is playing a leading role in combating extremism and political violence in the region and the world, it is high time to restore the primary role of women in this undertaking.”

This week, Hedayah hosted a workshop in Abu Dhabi on the role of families in preventing and countering violent extremism.